Closing Economic Disparities: The Work Still To Do

As working people take stock of their lot on this Labor Day, two "in" words predominate — inflation and inequality.

President Barack Obama, at the 50th anniversary March on Washington, bemoaned the latter. He said that "working Americans of all races have seen their wages and incomes stagnate," but for African Americans, it's been worse: Black unemployment is almost twice as high as white unemployment, and Hispanic unemployment isn't far behind.

Unemployment in Connecticut, now at 8.1 percent, is higher than the national unemployment rate of 7.4 percent. The jobless rate for Hispanics in Connecticut is 15.7 percent, and for blacks it's 13.4 percent.

The 2013 federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, as it has been since 2009. (Connecticut's is $8.25 an hour, making ours one of the six top-paying states.) That $7.25 may sound like an improvement over the wage of 45 years ago, when it was $1.60 an hour. But taking inflation into account, minimum-wage workers have lost ground since 1968. Adjusted for inflation, 1968's rate would be $10.56 per hour today.

As far as buying power goes, the lowest-paid employees have less now than their parents or grandparents did.

Those earning more than the minimum have kept just a nose ahead of inflation. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2012 the average American private-sector worker earned $23.98 an hour, which is $3.67 an hour more than in 2006. Factor in the rate of inflation, though, and the increase is less than 6 cents an hour.

Even high-wage earners are just keeping pace with inflation — on their base salaries. Many executives are now paid mostly in stocks and stock options; their base pay, while not shabby by any means, has managed to just outpace inflation — putting them, at least in that way, on a par with middle-income employees.

This Labor Day, employees will take comfort in the fact that they are employed, and the jobless may take heart in the slightly rosier jobs outlook after a dismal few years. The national unemployment rate, at 7.4 percent, is trending steadily down from a high of 10 percent in October 2009. Connecticut's peak of unemployment, 9.2 percent in 2010, has also fallen, though not as far.

But the outlook is rosy only for some. Economic disparity between whites and African Americans is nearly as wide as 50 years ago, though other gaps have narrowed, such as voter turnout, high school completion and life expectancy, according to a Pew Research study. It is, as the president said, the "great unfinished business" of America.